Tutoring and Other Important Things
by WritingMadness
Summary: Sixth and seventh year classes have been combined! A Harry-stricken Ginny finds herself being tutored by one Draco Malfoy, and drama ensues. Draco/Ginny/Harry. Alternate Universe, first fic.


_A/N: Hi everyone… this is my first fan fiction piece, and I've realized that writing is about 20 times harder than just reading, so… this isn't something that I'd usually read with interest. Hopefully I can get better with practice. Please, please, please review! I'd love any constructive criticism, whatever. Just no flames, please, they're not very nice. And they're pointless._

_Anywho. Draco doesn't actually show up in this chapter, and there would be an element of surprise when he does show up next chapter, but I'm spoiling it for whoever happens to read this. No, there will not be any Ginny/Blaise, sorry to those who want it. Oh yes, can someone tell me how to do page breaks _please

_Disclaimer: I own none of the characters that you can recognize. _

_And so, to the story:_

**In which a Situation is Presented**

She was flat on her back with a heavy, robe-clad _thing_ on top of her in the middle of the hallway. _Well that was stupid… should've been looking up. _Forever cheerful, Ginny was about to laugh when she looked up into a face that was not what she was expecting to see. A smile died on her lips and melted into a scowl. Calmly, Ginny said, "Get off of me."

Smirking eyes stared down at Ginny as she tried to push herself up. How Zabini managed to make even his eyes smirk was beyond Ginny, but all thoughts of pretty brown eyes were lost when Ginny felt Zabini let even more of his weight pin her down.

"Oh my god! Just let me up, will you?" Ginny was not good at hiding her emotions, and her emotional face was now full of frustration.

_This is rather amusing to watch,_ thought Zabini, then grinned and said out loud, "My, my, little Weasley, it seems you've grown. Not so little up there anymore, are you? It's a shame our Mr. Potter can't see what's being offered to him on a silver platter."

Ginny's face colored. "You—how'd you know about—get off _now!_"

"Alright, alright." Zabini got up, rolling his eyes and holding his hands up in mock surrender. Ginny flipped over and began to pick up her scattered things when her hand came in contact with a color changing puddle of ink. Her second-hand bag was soaked with the pretty liquid. It was the remains of Bill's gift to Ginny on her last birthday. Ginny looked up to confront Zabini, but by the time she had scanned the hall for any sign of him, Zabini was already swaggering off, calling out a last message for her: "If you ever get cold at night, honey, come find me—we'll have a great time." Ginny bit back a venomous retort and scowled even more. _Pervert._

xXx

Ginny hurried down one hall after another, her fiery red hair streaming out behind her as she raced for the transfiguration classroom. When she finally reached the door of the transfiguration classroom, she checked her watch. Ginny sucked in a breath—she was ten minutes late. Taking a deep breath, she pushed open the door to the classroom.

Ginny winced as the door to the transfiguration classroom shut behind her with a bang. Professor McGonagall stopped talking to the class and looked towards the door with an irritated expression. "And might I ask, Miss Weasley, _why_ you come into my class ten minutes late?"

"Ah… I, uh, got held up…" Ginny held up her ink-soaked bag as an explanation.

"Sorry." McGonagall frowned. "Alright then. Find a seat."

McGonagall resumed talking as Ginny slid into the seat next to Luna Lovegood, the only empty spot in the classroom. "As I was about to explain before Ms. Weasley interrupted, due to some… _complications_ with the scheduling of the school grounds inspection," here McGonagall pressed her lips together as if she smelled something distasteful—everyone knew McGonagall thought that the whole inspection was pointless. "Sixth and seventh year classes will be held together for… a while. How long has not yet been determined." Whispers immediately erupted in the room. "Listen now!" snapped McGonagall. "Since the two years are learning different material, sixth year students, that means all of _you_, have an option of either taking an extra class in the evenings or finding a tutor from the year above." At that, groans and excited whispers alike rose from the fidgety class. Ginny was among those who groaned. _I guess I'll have to find a tutor. _Quidditch_ is in the evenings…._

"However! There _will_ be regular assessments to make sure that the sixth year students are in fact learning the material. Tutors will be given a curriculum guide. I recommend that you all start to decide which option you would like to choose soon. Class sign-ups and tutor sign-ups will be posted in common rooms; tutors must be approved by myself. The deadline to sign up for a class or to find an approved tutor is the Friday after next." Here McGonagall paused while whispers erupted once again. "Now. Please take out your wands. Today we are starting a new unit— open your books to page 154, Chapter 14. This kind of transfiguration must be executed with particular care…."

xXx

Ginny drifted along in the river of students coming out of the transfiguration classroom a little while later. Someone—or two—grabbed her arms from both sides and linked arms with her. Startled, Ginny looked around and relaxed when she saw that it was two of her good friends who had grabbed her—Ella Hutchley and Natalie Waters. Looking behind Natalie, Ginny saw her closest friend at Hogwarts, Matthew Banks. Ginny smiled and mouthed a silent good morning to him, and Matt nodded towards her multi-colored bag, eyebrows raised. Ginny smiled sheepishly and mouthed _I'll tell you later_.

"Good morning, ladies," Ginny said to the girls on either arm. "Any new developments?"

As Ella and Natalie related the latest gossip to her, Ginny thought on how lucky she was to have this group of friends. Ever since her brush with the Chamber of Secrets in first year Ginny had been very quiet at school, until one day a month or so into the school year Natalie, Ella, and Matt had sat down in the empty spots of the Gryffindor table on the side that wasn't occupied by the Golden Trio and Co. Startled, she had looked up from her lunch and watched as the three carried on as if it were a normal thing to be sitting next to That Second Year Girl Who Doesn't Talk. Later that day they worked at the same station as Ginny during Herbology, and even got her to talk a bit. From there things just took off. Ginny, grateful that someone was willing to listen to her, stopped hiding her personality and came out with her non-stop talking self. But when things became really difficult and all Ginny needed was a hug and a sympathetic ear, Matthew was there for her, especially when talking about Harry.

Ah, Harry. Where to start? His tousled black hair and emerald green eyes had captured her heart from their first sighting! Er… actually, no. Harry was really rather scrawny in first year, as she remembered it. He hadn't started shaping up until third or fourth year, and when he shaped up, he _shaped up_. It started with stolen glances and hidden giggles in Ginny's second year. Eventually she'd gotten over the fact that Harry just didn't like her. Ginny had dated other guys, and had wiped away all of her feelings towards Harry. But lately… lately he'd been acting nicer towards her, talking to her more, and giving her hope, however feeble and pathetic. There was even that one time when Harry almost dueled Shaun in the hall for…er… inappropriate behavior (Harry didn't have to step in, of course; Ginny had already hexed the guy into oblivion—still, it was romantic, right?). She even thought she'd caught him staring a few times—well, a lot of times. It was all rather exciting and giggle inducing. And here was the perfect opportunity to ask to spend more time with the Boy Who Lived himself—tutoring! If Harry were her tutor, then they'd be able to talk every day. _Every day!_ Just the thought made her grin.

"Giiiiiinny. Ginny!"

"What?" Ginny snapped out of her reverie to stare at Ella, who was looking at her strangely.

"You were daydreaming again." Ella said, with a casual wave. "Anyway, we were talking about Zabini. He's got detention with McGonagall all next week."

Ginny wrinkled her nose. "Why?"

Natalie shrugged as they headed towards the Great Hall for lunch. "Got caught making out with someone in McGonagall's office, the idiot. Who was it again this week?" Natalie looked inquiringly towards Ella, who scoffed impatiently.

"It was _Eloise_! You know, that know-it-all who we have Herbology with?"

Ginny gasped as the four friends sat at the Gryffindor table. "But—isn't she a Ravenclaw? I didn't think Zabini would _go_ that low… or out of his house at all, for that matter."

Matt snorted. "Then you don't know Slytherins, Ginny m'dear. They'll do anything to get what they want—Zabini especially. It's not hard to keep a player like him satisfied."

Ginny scowled. "Just throw a new girl at him every week or so, right?" Her voice had become dangerously quiet. Matt gave her a thoughtful look, but Ginny was so intent on torturing her lunch with a fork that she didn't notice.

"You guys, I think this is my chance to finally spend some time with Harry!" An overeager, blindingly sunny voice drifted over to the four Gryffindors and Ginny froze with a bit of lunchmeat dangling off the tines of her fork. Swiveling in her seat, Ginny searched out the culprit, and narrowed her eyes when they fell upon a head of dazzling blonde hair.

Of course: Melanie Paltrow. The official Blonde Girl at the school, she was known widely by the student population to have a dangerous and often obsessive crush on Harry Potter. It was rumored she slept with a picture of him under her pillow, and that the locket around her neck contained a lock of Harry's hair. Unfortunately, though extremely shallow, she happened to be very pretty. Frustratingly, Harry and his friends seemed to be the only ones who didn't see this potential peril to Harry's health and happiness posed by Barbi—Melanie.

"I've decided," Melanie said, flipping her hair over her shoulder, "to ask Harry to tutor me tomorrow. I don't want to seem overeager."

A sudden snort and a gurgling noise came from the opposite direction, followed by a hacking cough. Ginny jumped, and turned around to look, alarmed, at Matt as he choked on his pumpkin juice. Tears were leaking out of his eyes. "Overeager…." Matt was gasping for air. Ella and Natalie proceeded to give him two heavy slaps to the back each. "Alright," he said, "I'm alright, but… did she say she didn't want to seem overeager?"

Ella scoffed disbelievingly. "Overeager my ass… doesn't she like take showers with a picture of him or something?" Three pairs of disgusted eyes stared at her. "What? That's what Penny told me the other day!" Silence.

"I'm scarred."

"That image will be burned into my mind forever. _Forever_."

"A naked Melanie doesn't sound too bad to me." Once again, silence reigned among their ranks. Then, suddenly, two benches scraped loudly backwards, and with many exclamations of "Oh, my god" and "what a_pervert_," the three girls flounced out of the Great Hall, leaving an amused Matt sitting with other males similarly preoccupied with thoughts relating to showers and blondes.

xXx

Ginny was in a fix. She wanted to ask Harry, but what if that Melanie got to it before she did? Harry was, after all, a creature-of-the-male-species, and _those_ always fell for a pretty face, at least in Ginny's experience. It was just… if all those hours of daydreaming and giggling and stalking were going to be wasted then her name wasn't Ginny Weasley. Well, that was it, then. Melanie was going to ask Harry tomorrow, so Ginny'd have to ask tonight, and if Harry said no—well, but he wouldn't say no, would he? He was Harry Potter.


End file.
